A strong mission to connect people with plants has grown over the years to also include animals. Gardens, Zoos, Aquariums, and Museums have come a long way in the last twenty years with integrating a holistic approach to recreating our natural world. Over the course of my career in the public gardens realm, commencing at Missouri Botanical Garden’s Climatron Conservatory, I have worked to build outstanding plant collections that also encompass other dimensions such birds and butterflies. How does one successfully incorporate animals into educational horticultural displays? This issue is dedicated to exploring plant/animal integrated exhibits, through articles submitted by plant and animal professionals from aquariums to zoos. A new frontier of cutting edge concepts morph beautiful displays into rich ecological exhibits and have emerged as convergent examples of this new paradigm. Through trail and error, we can together learn what makes an exhibit engaging, as well as effective in providing an authentic guest experience of the interrelationship between the plant and animal worlds.

 

Remembering back when my oldest son was four, he asked me how submerged aquatic plants are pollinated. It totally stumped the ecologist in me. But some professionals are working to create just such an underwater world, needing to don scuba gear to grow plants in a CO2 infused environment. The Tennessee Aquarium is one such institution and has the incredible challenge of gardening underwater to create beautiful living stages and backdrops for displaying fish. Proficiently overcoming another challenging environment, the National Aquarium in Baltimore mixes parrots and plants. Though not easy for maintaining flawless displays of plant specimens, it is nonetheless an essential interaction for creating a realistic Australian rainforest. Their other Amazon-themed conservatory also shares great success, despite an herbivorous sloth lurking in its treetops. Even their mini habitats house breeding collections of poison dart frogs, whom almost exclusively depend on live bromeliads to complete their life cycle.

 

Humans are not immune to the interdependence of animals on plants. Did you know that you can thank a pollinator for two out of every three bites you enjoy?  Most people don’t know that many plants depend on such pollinators to produce and disperse their fruit or seeds, and that is why institutions such as Lotusland in Santa Barbara go out of their way to create pollinator gardens. Though Lotusland is known for its whimsical displays and collections of rare plants representing cycads, succulents and cacti, they also have areas they purposely let go natural to encourage native pollinators including insects to visit. Another reason for encouraging beneficial insects? Keeping collections healthy and pest free, through their predation of plant pests. These types of demonstration gardens show the public how they can preserve or enhance beneficial plant/animal interactions in their own outdoor spaces.

 

Even an institution’s organizational leadership can guide its efforts to become more integrative. Museums such as Arizona’s Sonoran Desert Museum started a trend several decades ago to have botanist Directors, to be later followed similarly by such institutions as Houston’s Cockrell Butterfly Center.  When visiting these institutions, one senses that the plants are more than backdrop for critters. Clearly, the integration of plants into animal exhibitry is integral to the Museum’s collections for educating the public on such topics of ecology and co-evolution. Plant animal interactions are so well represented at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, some may leave wondering whether it is a garden or a zoo. Their adept utilization of plants that have evolved to be pollinated by birds allows the visitors to observe evolution in action. They have created such a complete ecosystem that even appropriate ant species live in their plants, including leaf-cutting ants. Having created such sophisticated ecological examples of the interrelationship of living things, these institutions have blurred the lines to bring greater understanding of the interdependence in the web of life.

 

What about Zoos? They are also using plant/animal interactions to tell the stories about the importance of biodiversity. Jacksonville Zoo has even added the word “Garden” to its title. Jacksonville Zoo and Garden has witnessed the interest of plants blossoming in their relatively new exhibit “African Blooms”, where African fauna meets African flora. This type of exhibitry is called biogeographics. Now the Zoo and Garden has the foundation to also create separate stand-alone gardens without animals. Not only are they a world-class zoo, but are headed down the path to becoming a bonafide botanical garden as well. From wildlife to wildflowers, a small botanical garden on Martha’s Vineyard known as Polly Hill Arboretum is on a mission to protecting wildlife corridors by encouraging botanical byways with the propagation and planting of local genotypes (indigenous plants to the immediate area). This collective endeavor with the support of neighboring homeowners plants native species and collaborates with local agencies and institutions to create long-term strategic plans for new wildlife habitats. Planting for wildlife is seen as equally important to the zoological world, as incorporating wildlife into plant displays has been in the horticultural realm.

 

Finally, what all institutions including botanical gardens, zoos, aquariums and museums have in common is their collective efforts to create outstanding collections.  In this issue, we will explore one such outstanding example, the Montréal Botanical Garden’s collection of roses. It would be impossible to contain all the taxa in this genus called Rosa, but Montréal Botanical Garden has taken a practical approach by collecting and documenting all of the known species. Their efforts guide and inspire others to creating great collections, such as those housed at the Missouri Botanical Garden (what locals of St. Louis call Shaw’s Garden, also known as Mobot). The renowned Missouri Botanical Garden, now 150 years old, continues to thrive under the leadership of Dr. Peter Raven. Lucky for the world, its founder Henry Shaw had the foresight and philanthropic power to sow the seeds for what has become one the world’s most important educational institutions. It is very befitting that we will all have the opportunity to celebrate the Missouri Botanical Garden’s and Singapore Botanical Garden’s 150th anniversaries, as well as the Kew’s 250th anniversary this year at the American Public Gardens Association annual conference at the Missouri Botanical Garden. There, we can personally experience Mobot’s splendid collections and the Climatron, one of the finest examples of an integrated plant/animal exhibit in the country.